it feels good.”
“I’m not too sure about that,” she said in a wry tone that made him smile.
Damn.
He liked her.
That was why he needed to make sure he didn’t hurt her. He could do this. They were friends and now co-owners of a ranch—one that would require plenty of work if they wanted to get it back on solid financial footing. He couldn’t screw this up.
He had to imagine he was definitely going back to NASA, though. He couldn’t let Molly be his contingency plan, his life, if he was denied a place on the Cronus program. He knew that. He wanted to believe he wouldn’t use Molly in that way. But a part of him, the part that had been a loser before he came to the Bar T Ranch as a teenager, wasn’t too sure. That part of him wanted to just take what he needed.
* * *
“THIS ISN’T YOUR average will and you could probably contest it and get a judge to set aside Mick’s wishes. But, Molly, he was your dad and, Jason, I know you two were close. This is more about respecting his wishes than upholding the law. If you take it to court, it’ll be a long time before either of you can do anything with the ranch.”
Molly crossed her legs. She’d worn a sleeveless dress that fell loosely over her body, accentuating the strength in her arms and her long legs. Her boots were hand-tooled and had turquoise accents in the leatherwork. She’d pulled the top of her hair back but left the rest to hang around her shoulders.
Maybe that was why he’d been doing all that soul baring in the middle of town—he was thinking with his boner instead of his head.
“Okay. Do we need to do anything to move forward?” Molly asked. “Legally?”
“You both have to sign off on any move to improve the ranch or change its purpose. That includes selling off or leasing part of it. I have the paperwork all ready to go. You can fill it in and both sign it and I’ll witness it.”
“We haven’t had a chance to discuss what we want to do,” Ace said.
Running the Bar T wasn’t part of his plans for the future. He figured he’d recuperate here, do his exercise regimen, maybe stoke the flames of the fire between himself and Molly and leave after his three months’ leave. But this was...complicated.
“I figured as much. If you want to, you can use my conference room to discuss plans. If it’s going to take longer than a few hours, we can schedule another day for you to come back.”
“I’d like to get this sorted out today,” Molly said, leaning forward to take the papers Rupert held out to them. “The ranch can’t wait any longer. We need to make some decisions to ensure the financial future of the Bar T.”
“I agree. I don’t want to wait,” Jason said. “Where is the conference room?”
“Last door on the right. Just let Shirley know when you are done and I’ll get the paperwork witnessed and notarized.”
“Thanks,” Molly said.
They stood at the same time. Molly slung her leather bag over her shoulder and turned toward the door. Jason put his hand at the small of her back and reached around her to open it.
He led her down the hall. Once they were in the conference room, she stepped away from him, putting her bag down on the table.
She didn’t sit but walked over to the window at the end of the room that looked out at the street. It was a quiet business street that bordered the park. He stayed where he was, unsure what she was thinking.
“The situation is really very bleak. I’ve got a couple hundred head of cattle and we’ll make a profit but not nearly enough to pay back the money you lent us or the loan Dad took out to cover some investment losses. I don’t know if he had a plan to get out of the hole, but...I have a few thoughts,” she said, finally turning to face him.
She was serious. She looked like the same country girl he’d been talking to all morning, but in her eyes he saw a businesswoman with responsibilities. “During the dinner you missed last night, I talked to the hands to get their feelings on the ideas I have for the ranch. A part of me would rather eat dirt than accept help from Wil Abernathy, but you should know he made a very generous offer to lease part of our acreage.”
“You talked to the hands about this?”
“Well, they live on the ranch, too. It’s their livelihood on the line as much as mine. We can’t all run off and be astronauts.”
She was ticked. He could see that and he didn’t blame her. He had an out and she didn’t.
He studied her, and for a long moment all he could see was the way she’d looked in his arms that first night he’d come back here—with the moonlight on her face and her hair, wild and loose, curling around her shoulders and face. He wanted her. He needed to do right by her.
But he wasn’t sure how.
“Mick might come back and haunt us both if we make a deal with Abernathy,” Ace said slowly. He was well aware of the feud. Even if he thought taking Wil’s offer might be a good option, he didn’t want to do so at Molly’s expense. She was struggling, still grieving her dad and dealing with the will. And he knew she’d feel guilty about letting Abernathy lease the land. Ace needed to be the man Mick had expected him to be, and part of that meant protecting Mick’s daughter.
Hell, fake it. Be that man. Solve the problem...
For Molly.
She tipped her head at him. “Glad to see we are on the same page. That means we have to do something more than run cattle. It’s just not paying the way it used to. We’ve still got the oil wells, but they’re not producing like they did back in the ’70s.”
She walked back to the table and pulled out a chair, sitting down as she drew her bag toward her.
He thought about something Dennis had said before Ace had left Houston. About bids for the new training facility and how he wanted the facility to be close by and have more ties to NASA than the civilian team.
What if the Bar T was the location of the facility? It was a long shot. Still, they wouldn’t know unless they tried.
He put his hand on hers. “I’ve got a suggestion, but it’s a bit unusual.”
“What is it? So far all I’ve come up with is some sort of B&B spa and no one really wants to do that.”
“NASA. I’m part of a team preparing for long-term missions designed as precursors to the Mars missions we hope will happen one day. Much like Project Mercury was preparation for the moon landing. These missions would set up a way station between Earth and Mars. And they are looking to develop a dedicated training facility.”
“How would that work?”
“Well, the facility would be developed and paid for by a company that we agreed to work with. We’re close enough to Houston for it to be a good fit. What do you think?” he asked.
* * *
MOLLY LOVED HIS IDEA. From what Jason said, it would bring in
